COA Mount Desert Center opens
The alum-owned Salt Market occupies the ground-floor space of the COA Mount Desert Center in Northeast Harbor.
By Rob Levin
College of the Atlantic’s new foothold in the town of Mount Desert, featuring both residential and retail space, is up and running at 141 Main Street in the village of Northeast Harbor.
The COA Mount Desert Center comprises living space for 15 students, a staff/faculty apartment, and, at sidewalk level, the new Salt Market, a project of COA alum Maude Kusserow ’15. Salt is an island kitchen collective, Kusserow says, featuring local produce, flowers, and bread, prepared foods and soups, a curated pantry, artisan goods, and specialty coffee drinks made with an authentic Italian La Marzocco espresso machine.
The center, designed by architect and long-time COA collaborator John Gordon to blend in with Northeast Harbor’s Main Street vernacular, is the result of a partnership between COA and MD365, a community-based organization dedicated to promoting long-term economic vitality in the town of Mount Desert. MD365 owns the land where the building sits, and COA holds a long-term lease with the group. Funding for the project came from COA’s $57 million Broad Reach Capital Campaign.
“When Darron Collins first connected with us in 2017 about having some COA students living in Northeast Harbor, my immediate reaction was YES! Having a cohort of college students and some faculty here could help the town move towards the brighter future we’d like to see,” said MD365 Executive Director Kathy Miller. “This is a village in transition, but it’s still to be determined which way we’ll be heading—into a more vibrant year-round village, or one of increasing darkness, with shops closed and lights out for half the year.”
The building is attuned to COA’s environmental ethos, featuring Gutex brand wood fiberboard insulation, rooftop solar panels, and electric heat pumps for heating and cooling. It also has a super-tight envelope and heat-capturing ventilation for fresh air. Students living in the space engage with Mount Desert-based organizations in volunteer or internship positions in exchange for reduced rent.
